154 Rev. Mr Whewell's Address to the Geological Society. 



cil, I wrote letters to a great number of engineers, begging 

 tbem to communicate to us the levels and sections which they 

 might obtain in the course of their professional employments ; 

 and I am happy to see so excellent an example as Mr Burr's 

 paper supplies, of the advantage which may be derived from 

 materials of this class. 



2. Foreign (South European and Trans-European ) Geo- 

 logy. — In proceeding beyond the Alps, and still more as we 

 advance beyond the shores of Europe, we can no longer, so 

 far at least as geologists have hitherto discovered, trace that 

 remarkable correspondence of the strata of different countries 

 which we can study so successfully in our home circuit. With 

 the mountain masses of those more distant regions we are, it 

 would seem, hardly authorised as yet in making any more de- 

 tailed distinctions than the general one of secondary and ter- 

 tiary strata ; the latter including the strata in which we trace 

 an approach to the existing species of animals, and the former 

 implying a general comparison with our chalk, oolites, and 

 lower strata. Perhaps we may further distinguish in most 

 countries which have been visited, a great mass of transition 

 states ; but the establishment of such divisions must be the 

 business of geological observers. 



We have had several valuable additions to this portion of 

 our knowledge, including, as we must do, Greece and its 

 islands in this foreign district. That the Apennine limestone 

 is the predominant mass of the Morea, had been made known 

 by the researches of MM. Boblaye and Virlet. Mr Strick- 

 land and Mr Hamilton have told us that the same rock forms 

 a large mass of the island of Zante and other islands in that 

 sea, and of the neighbourhood of Smyrna. They find also 

 tei'tiary beds, as on the south side of the bay of Smyrna ; on 

 the east side of the island of Zante ; and at Lixouri in Cepha- 

 lonia, where the tertiary beds are remarkable for the number 

 and beauty of their fossils, some of which have been identified 

 with species existing in the Mediterranean. Dr Bell, who 

 travelled from Teheran to the shores of the Caspian, has given 

 us an account of the rocks which he observed in Mazanderan. 

 From the statements made by him, we are led to believe, that 

 a more ccmtinued and detailed observation of the country would 



